Ally Launches Mobile Payments Upgrades

The bank has integrated Popmoney into its mobile app, and also introduced a mobile electronic transfer function.

Direct bank Ally Bank announced it has expanded its mobile payments offerings, integrating Popmoney into its mob app and also adding a new mobile money transfer function.

The banks said its customers can now send and receive money via Popmoney through Ally's mobile banking app, including with people who do not have an Ally Account. Popmoney, a Fiserv product, is an electronic person-to-person payments service. In addition to being able to conduct regular Popmoney transactions, Ally's mobile banking users will now be able to view scheduled payments and payment history as well as set up and manage Popmoney contacts in Ally mobile banking.

Further, Ally said customers can now set up and manage one-time and recurring electronic fund transfers between Ally and non-Ally bank accounts via the mobile app. Previously, customers were able to set up a one-time transfer between Ally Bank accounts only. In addition to the expanded capability, customers can now see their Ally-to-Ally transfer history in ally Mobile banking, the bank said.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio

My wife's company uses Popmoney to pay freelance employees and they find it's working well so far. P2P services, especially mobile ones, will just become more popular as the world continues going this way. Most younger workers would probably rather be paid via Popmoney or a similar service than be handed a check, as they very rarely go to their bank branches.

Electronic P2P services like Popmoney are also becoming increasingly popular with small businesses, as it's easier and cheaper than cutting checks. I know of several small business that use Popmoney quite a bit to pay contractors.

PopMoney recently added instant delivery funds to its offering. That seems pretty useful to me. You can send someone money from your mobile phone and the funds are instantly made available to their account. That's the kind of simplicity and convenience customers are increasingly coming to expect.